Michael Easton was born in Hertfordshire, England, in 1954. Once in Australia - some 28 years later - he quickly established himself as a practical and inventive composer able to respond to commissions of all kinds, as a brilliant arranger of other people's music, and as an all-round musician of wide abilities. By 1986 he felt able to retire from the music publishing world and devote himself entirely to work as a freelance composer. This, however, did not prevent him from forming an ongoing and notable duo-piano partnership with Len Vorster, and contributing many stimulating pre-concert talks to the Melbourne Symphony , Musica Viva and Opera Australia series.

Michael Easton's music reflects his own ebullience, energy and good humor. It is entirely accessible - reliant upon ear-catching melodies, piquant harmonies, and brilliant orchestration. The influence of French music (particularly that of Milhaud, Poulenc, and Ravel) and jazz is strong: the former a matter both of natural sympathy and the stimulation of his studies with Berkeley (himself a French-trained composer), and the latter an outcome of his own considerable skills as a jazz pianist. Wickedly witty, and beautifully crafted, it is music whose capacity to please at first hearing conceals depth and seriousness that may only gradually become apparent.